NORRIDGEWOCK, Maine — A Winthrop man was lucky to escape injury Tuesday morning when his plane flipped over at the Central Maine Airport of Norridgewock, according to police.

Robert Lewandowski, 44, was making practice landings with his 1946 Aeronca Champion 7AC around 10 a.m. and was on his eighth landing when “something felt like it broke loose” on the single-engine aircraft, Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said.

The plane veered off the runway, struck a snowbank and flipped over, coming to rest on its wings, according to McCausland.

Lewandowski said he thought the rear wheel on the plane had a problem.

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“The rear wheel had a misconfiguration while landing,” he said. “It caused the plane to be uncontrollable when landing.”

The plane hopped over a snowbank and came to nearly a complete stop when it hit a second snowbank, he said. At that point, the plane started to roll forward.